Rand Paul and seven other senators want to make sure your mail isn't being tracked by the government
Is your mail being monitored? Is the government keeping track of correspondence among people? Should the government have that power? These were the questions some senators sought an answer to this week in a letter sent to the United States Postal Inspection Service.
Many people might not be aware, but the USPIS might monitor their mail. The contents of the correspondence are supposedly not examined, but those who send and receive packages are apparently tracked in a process called "mail covers." Earlier this week, Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), along with Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Ed Markey (D-MA), Mike Lee (R-UT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Steve Daines (R-MT), wrote a letter to the USPIS calling for "stronger protections for the privacy of Americans' letters and packages," a press release stated.
"While mail covers do not reveal the contents of correspondence, they can reveal deeply personal information about Americans' political leanings, religious beliefs, or causes they support," a statement released from both senators read. "Consequently, surveillance of this information does not just threaten Americans' privacy, but their First Amendment rights to freely associate with political or religious organizations or peacefully assemble without the government watching."
The press release asserted that the USPS inspector general suggested a number of reforms to mail surveillance in 2014 and 2015. There is lingering uncertainty, however, over the actions the agency took based on those recommendations. Additionally, an audit by the Office of the Inspector General revealed that government agencies sought the information from more than 100,000 mail records from 2010-2014, according to the press release.
"USPIS must reform its regulations for mail covers to protect Americans' privacy," the bipartisan letter maintained. "USPS and USPIS should, except in emergencies, only conduct mail covers when a federal judge has approved this surveillance — a policy that USPIS already has in place for searches of the contents of mail — and it should also notify the targets of surveillance after the fact, unless a judge requires that such notice be delayed."
The senators' inquiry raises an important question, "Should the government track U.S. mail?" Objectively, one could make a case supporting each side of this question. On the one hand, people have a right to privacy, and that right is expected when sending mail. On the other, what if the contents of someone's mail could help prevent some attacks and save lives? And another, yet something much more intrusive, if the USPIS isn't inspecting the contents of the mail, then why even track correspondence, to begin with? Conversely, wouldn't tracking mail contents be a gross violation of rights — and an occurrence associated with totalitarian governments and dictatorships?
"While mail covers do not reveal the contents of correspondence, they can reveal deeply personal information about Americans' political leanings, religious beliefs, or causes they support. Consequently, surveillance of this information does not just threaten Americans' privacy, but their First Amendment rights to freely associate with political or religious organizations or peacefully assemble without the government watching," the letter stated. "The risk of abuse of mail covers is not theoretical. There is a long history of documented abuses of postal surveillance. The Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, chaired by Senator Frank Church, revealed in 1976, that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had photographed the exteriors of over two million pieces of mail and opened hundreds of thousands of letters from prominent activists and authors."
According to the press release, among the information the senators requested was the "annual statistics relating to the amount of mail opening, or opening or inspecting the contents of sealed mail, that is conducted by the USPIS and USPS." This included the exact number of "mail openings requested by postal inspectors and other government agencies, broken out by the requesting agency, for each of the years between 2014 and 2021."
Most people would believe that mail should be monitored only in very extreme circumstances. Granted, "extreme circumstances" is objective and probably part of the problem. It's a delicate balance of authority that the above senators are making sure the USPIS does not abuse, and the country should be grateful for their efforts.